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At the occasion of the XV edition of the Florence Biennale, Chinese artist Chao Ge will receive the "Lorenzo il Magnifico" Lifetime Achievement Award from the President.

In the 1980s, Chao Ge, a young artist from northern China, resolved to dedicate himself to realizing the spiritual ideal of art through his paintings. Through unremitting efforts, by the early 1990s, he had become a recognized practitioner and leader of spiritual painting in China’s art circles.

His art embodies the poetic beauty nurtured by the vast landscapes of the East, while also touching upon the hardships, spiritual confusion, and human suffering of the 20th century. In an era of artistic atmosphere filled with entertainment-driven restlessness, noise, and venting, his creations have preserved a rare seriousness of spirit. The world we inhabit is sliding toward a secular abyss at an unstoppable pace; yet Chao Ge, through decades of unwavering endeavour, seeks spiritual truth through painting and contends with this declining world.

To explore the great roots of plastic arts, Chao Ge, following the guidance of Herodotus, the father of ancient Greek history, embarked on a journey across Mediterranean civilizations twenty-five years ago, conducting an artistic investigation spanning ten countries. The achievements of plastic arts in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and ancient Greece profoundly inspired his creative practice. His art deliberately avoids the overly narrow individualistic vocabulary of the times, instead emphasizing a broad, historically rooted, and transcendent formal language. This allows his expression to transcend individual narratives, resonating with the grand spiritual orientation in his heart.

The richness of emotion and keen perceptiveness in his works deeply embody the psychological trauma, loss, and inner conflicts of his complex era, along with the accompanying contemplation and suffering. His art is rooted in his time, yet he himself is a true transcender. 

He stands independently from the prevalent discursive context of his era, issuing a clear voice while remaining distant from the mainstream. His creations transcend the turbulent and noisy times, untainted by the pervasive absurdity, eccentricity, and extreme egoism of 20th-century negative spirits, instead manifesting a firm belief in the essence of things and a positive humanistic spirit.

Chao Ge believes that the great function of painting lies in drawing people’s perception of things from superficial narration to inner essence. As an artist amid the context of Asian social transformation, his art rarely conveys such profound insight into and deep sympathy for the universal human nature of his era, along with the human dignity thus revealed. Chao Ge firmly asserts his identity as a humanist. When asked about his creative purpose, he once stated: “To restore people’s reverence for things”.

In 2006, Chao Ge’s solo exhibition Classical Rebirth was first presented at the prestigious Palazzo Venezia in Rome, Italy. In 2017, the Palazzo Venezia hosted another grand exhibition entitled Epic — The Art of Chao Ge, a retrospective that achieved widespread success in the esteemed Sala delle Armi. In January of the same year, his exhibition A Spiritual Journey with Marco Polo was held at the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence; in the birthplace of the Renaissance, Chao Ge felt immense joy and honor. In 2015, at the invitation of the Austrian Presidential Palace, his exhibition Moment and Eternity was showcased at the prestigious Kunstforum Wien, receiving critical acclaim. Chao Ge’s works have also been exhibited in Colorado (USA), St. Petersburg (Russia), London (UK), and Paris (France).